Everyone dreads being introduced to the in-laws for the first time. But most of us have it easy compared with Ruth. Her new family insult her, then attempt to molest her and end up discussing whether to establish her in a brothel.

At least she gives as good as she gets. The Homecoming, originally produced in 1964, is Harold Pinter's first play in which the male power structure is comprehensively overturned by a woman. Though all Pinter's best work is poised on a knife edge, the success of The Homecoming particularly hangs in the balance. Overplaying the menace can make the misogyny too much to bear, while emphasising the absurd comedy throws the veracity of the situation into doubt.

Damian Cruden's revival treads a careful line between making the play look like a dark, Oedipal enigma and a cheerfully un-PC 1960s sitcom. Dawn Allsopp's suburban set is classic Pinterland: a frowzy living room, full of surly men desperate for the touch of a woman. Everything immediately becomes sexually symbolic. When the men perform the ritual of lighting up cigars, it's a brute competition to determine whose line of ash wilts first.

The acting is as nuanced as the situation demands. Paul Shelley's Max is an irascible old pugilist whose immaculate timing prompts a delayed burst of laughter for his assertion: "I've never had a whore under this roof before. Ever since your mother died." As Ruth, Suzy Cooper gives a magnificently poised demonstration of feminine power. Her presence in the room makes the men seem curiously emasculated. Without her they are, quite literally, Ruth-less.